May. 15th, 2008

May. 15th, 2008

I do not have enough allcaps you guys. It's amazing, because it really was a lot about language -- civil unions in California had a lot of the same rights as marriage, and it's harder to make a legal case out of that, you know?

Video of the steps outside the CA Supreme Court as the decision was announced: here.

Video of Mayor Gavin Newsom's press conference here. It's hard to hear, but look at that crowd, look at the reaction, man. (You remember him; he was the one who told the city of San Francisco to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2004 -- the film crew that was around that day made a video called Pursuit of Equality, trailer available here; it also makes me sniffly.1)

There's a neat slideshow at the San Jose Mercury News here; picture 15 is the SF City Hall, filled with people.

***1. For maximum sniffles: Vienna Teng's City Hall (here), a narrative song about a couple getting married in San Francisco in 2004. And it's topical, because the 2004 marriage in SF led, over the last four years, to this: many of the couples who got married then brought the suit against the state that resulted in this overturn. Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, the very first couple to be married in San Francisco in 2004 (in the first picture under Thursday here), were part of the suit.